James Towner, Chief Growth Officer at ArvatoConnect, discusses how AI is transforming contact centre compliance, boosting real-time assurance and supporting FCA Consumer Duty in financial services.
Contact centres are operating at the frontline of some of the most complex challenges in customer care today. Regulation is tightening, customer expectations are rising and cost pressures are constant.
In highly regulated sectors like financial services, these demands are even more acute. The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty, introduced in 2023, set clear expectations: firms must act in good faith, avoid foreseeable harm and deliver outcomes that genuinely help customers meet their financial goals. Added to that, they must also have the evidence to prove it.
The FCA’s review into how firms are treating vulnerable customers, published in March, backed this up – highlighting industry best practice, as well as the room for improvement that still exists.
Both the Consumer Duty and vulnerability guidance require not only adherence to the regulations, but demonstrable proof that compliance is built into day-to-day operations. Add in sudden spikes in demand triggered by event-driven spikes, such as the FCA’s review of motor finance commission arrangements, and it’s clear the traditional contact centre model must adapt.
From reactive compliance to real-time assurance
Meeting these pressures isn’t about asking people to work harder. It’s about equipping them to work smarter. And this is where AI is becoming an essential partner.
Far from replacing people, AI is giving agents the tools, insights and confidence to deliver higher-quality, fully compliant customer experiences, consistently and at scale.
Tools such as real-time transcription, intent detection and sentiment analysis can spot early signs of vulnerability in the moment.
Take for example, signs that a customer is experiencing financial difficulty or has challenges understanding what’s being said to them. Agents can then be prompted to ask the right follow-up questions, while “next best action” technology, connected to live knowledge bases, ensures responses are accurate and meet the latest regulations.
This embeds compliance within every interaction – moving away from a more retrospective, box-ticking exercise. We’re already seeing AI detect potential data protection breaches mid-call, giving agents the chance to address issues before they escalate.
It’s also a boost for agent wellbeing. By removing the burden of navigating multiple systems and complex rule sets, AI frees them up to concentrate on what humans do best – delivering empathy, reassurance and sound judgement where it matters most.
Agents as AI guardians
As the technology takes on more of the compliance workload, the role of human agents will continue to evolve.
While AI is already powerful as a support tool, as more interactions shift towards digital agents, the more important it becomes to have a robust “compliance wrapper” around them.
Governance, compliance and optimisation challenges are amplified by the non-deterministic nature of AI, and inconsistency is not acceptable in regulated environments.
The question is no longer just how do we train people to use AI? but also how do we train and manage AI systems with the same rigour we apply to our people?
This shift opens up new opportunities for agents to step into specialist roles from monitoring and reducing bias in AI decision-making and optimising performance, to overseeing compliance reporting in real time and testing explainability, fairness and accountability to strengthen governance. It also means auditing customer interactions to meet regulatory requirements, while still relying on people to handle complex disputes and cases where human judgement or emotion is essential.
Unlike pure technology firms, we already have deep expertise in managing and training agents; navigating regulations and policies; and understanding client processes, challenges and desired outcomes. That same expertise can now also be applied to governing and improving AI-driven operations, to ensure AI is harnessed safely, effectively and in ways that build trust.
Why implementation matters
Ultimately, our recent research makes it clear that success in using AI to raise quality and compliance standards depends heavily on how it’s introduced and integrated.
More than one in four (26%) UK contact centre agents are considering leaving their jobs due to AI-related concerns. Poor training, lack of career progression and limited communication from leadership are the main drivers.
It’s a clear warning that if AI is to enhance service and compliance, the people using it every day want it to be introduced with transparency, clear communication and genuine engagement from their managers.
The training point is particularly interesting. Many would feel more confident with better hands-on training (38%) and clearer communication about AI’s role (37%).
Addressing this isn’t just about training agents on how the technology works, it’s also about showing them how it makes their lives better. This becomes even more important in regulated environments, where products and services are often highly complex and agents need the right tools to navigate them confidently and compliantly.
Measuring AI’s success in ways that go beyond basic efficiency gains is also important. Organisations that can demonstrate improvements in resolution rates, reductions in handling times and more robust compliance will not only prove AI’s commercial and operational value, but also build confidence and trust among their people and customers.
The next chapter?
Looking ahead, AI will increasingly handle large-scale routine compliance checks, enabling human expertise to focus where it’s most valuable.
Real-time augmentation and evolving roles will also become more standard, turning agent’s roles into more skilled, rewarding and commercially significant positions.
Regulators are already signalling their support, with the FCA citing conversation analytics as an example of good practice within customer care.
The bottom line is clear. AI isn’t here to replace people. It’s here to empower them – to give contact centre teams the insight and confidence to meet rising regulatory, customer and cost pressures while excelling in and reshaping their roles.
